Kevin Mirallas was made available for sale over the summer but was initially struggling to find a club that were interested in his signature. The 31-year-old was linked with a return to Belgium for weeks, but no official bid materialised until the final few days of the transfer window and Mirallas has finally revealed why.
He told Belgian outlet RTBF: “Antwerp have been following me since May. I also talked to Bruges and Anderlecht, but Everton was asking for a lot of money to free me from my last year of contract. Lucien D’Onofrio waited until the very last day for the price to drop, but before that, he called me every day, and I really felt a real desire to get me in. So he got me free.”
Mirallas made 186 appearances in all competitions for Everton, scoring and creating 72 goals, but he fell down the pecking order in the last 24 months. The experienced wide-man racked up 637 minutes of playing time for Everton in 2017/18 and spent the second-half of the campaign on loan at Olympiacos (January 8, 2018 – June 30, 2018).
He failed to make a single appearance for the Blues in 2018/19 and was loaned out to Fiorentina (August 4, 2018 – June 30, 2019) as a result. Mirallas scored just two goals in 15 games for Olympiacos and two goals in 32 for Fiorentina. Despite his poor form over the last 18 months, Everton were requesting £6.2m for his signature. Clubs weren’t interested, however, so the Merseysiders have to eventually waive a transfer fee to offload him.
Since signing a one-year deal at the Bosuilstadion, Mirallas has gone on to make two appearances – a 2-0 defeat to Zulte Waregem (September 1) and 2-1 win over RSC Anderlecht (September 15). The Belgian international was surplus to requirements at Everton, but he’s a regular at Antwerp.